


Defenseless

by MalMao



Series: Sterek Drabbles on Tumblr (by deputyeyebrows) [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-18
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 15:48:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1654019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MalMao/pseuds/MalMao
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He loves Stiles. A lot. A terrifying amount in fact. And he never forgets that Stiles is human. He’s breakable. His entire body could turn on him in a snap.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defenseless

**Author's Note:**

> Derek calling Stiles “defenseless” just makes me imagine Derek constantly being told growing up that humans need a little more care than wolves and then this happened…

The first time his mom says it, it’s because he’s rough housing with one of his human cousins, and the play fighting gets just a touch too rough while the adults aren’t looking.

(“I don’t understand. It’s just a little scratch. Why hasn’t it healed yet?”

"You have to be careful with humans, Derek. They don’t heal as fast as we do. He might even have a scar."

"What’s a scar?")

Once Talia has satisfied all of his curiosity, Derek can’t help but worry about how completely  _fragile_ they all are. They could break at any second. They’re like glass or china or the lamp in the living room that he almost knocks over at least once a day.

His first year of schooling, Derek’s too scared of breaking one of them to even try to make friends. Talia eventually convinces him he just needs to be gentle. He still won’t play tag though. It feels too much like he’s a predator hunting prey and that  _scares_  him.

Fast forward to  _after._  Derek has no desire to give specifics about after what exactly. He’ll just say ‘after everything’ and leave it at that.

He and Stiles are together now. Together-together. Derek doesn’t really know how that happened. He just knows it started as  _nothing_  and then built and built until it was  _something._  Crescendo.

He loves Stiles. A lot. A terrifying amount in fact. And he never forgets that Stiles is human. He’s breakable. His entire body could turn on him in a snap.

Stiles has completely banned any shows about death or disease from their home, because it  _does things_  to Derek. It makes him buy stuff that they  _do not need_  in the name of protecting Stiles from silent killers like banisters or preservatives. After finding the cleaning cabinet — he-shits-you-not —  _baby-proofed_ , Stiles had put his foot down. Because, “I don’t care what happened on One Thousand Ways to Die Derek! I am not going to accidentally drink bleach no matter how tired or wasted I may be!”

Derek spends a lot of time making Stiles regret teaching him to use the internet. He researches carcinogens and finds out that the entire world is out to straight up  _murder_  his boyfriend. Food, drinks, the fucking air. God, he’s surprised Stiles has even lasted this long. How do humans make it into their twenties?

And that’s how Derek becomes a health food nut. Stiles comes home from a weekend with his Nana wanting nothing more than the Mint Oreos stashed on top of the fridge, only to find them gone. Along with all of the food he remembers being in the house and most of the cleaning products. It’s all replaced with natural shit that — okay maybe Stiles has been shoving down his dad’s throat for years, but that doesn’t mean  _he_  wants to eat it!

In the end though, Derek gives him his earnestly worried eyes which Stiles can never resist solely due to the fact that Derek only uses them when he really is earnestly worried and never to manipulate him. And if Stiles is really honest, he kind of owes Derek for the time that he ignored the earnestly worried eyes and ended up almost dying of a ruptured appendix.   

Stiles doesn’t admit to liking the natural alternative to regular potato chips though. He writes them on the white board they use to keep track of what groceries they need, and Derek knows not to mention it.

He  _really_  doesn’t like the concoction* Derek found that apparently kept an entire village near Hiroshima from suffering the effects of radiation poisoning, but it keeps appearing in the fridge and Stiles feels just charmed enough to drink it every damn time.  

Derek can tell Stiles is annoyed with the change in eating habits because the Sheriff is super nice to him at work as he enthusiastically shovels the most heart attack inducing food down his gullet. He can also tell when Stiles has finally come around, because the Sheriff becomes ridiculously antagonist all in a rush. As though it’s Derek’s fault that his son has returned to forcing health food at him with doubled zeal.

But the thing he knows peeves Stiles the most (in the best possible way) is sex. They have good sex okay? Great in fact. Derek is the type of guy that likes to please, and Stiles is not the type of guy to fake being pleased. Derek isn’t worried about that. But he knows that sometimes he holds back just a touch too much for Stiles. He gets this niggling worry in the back of his mind that he’s going to be too rough and  _hurt_.

(“Come  _on,_  Derek! Fuck. I’m not gonna break.”

 _You might_ , Derek thinks but he doesn’t say it out loud. Instead he mouths at the turn of Stiles’ jaw — there’s just a hint of day old stubble that scrapes like sandpaper under his tongue — to distract from his pleas being left only half obliged.)

Sometimes it’s easier to just let Stiles take the reins. He can’t just  _do_  that all the time though. It’s too much. Not because he doesn’t like it, but because of the way it makes him feel. Cracked open, all his vulnerabilities and weaknesses and the very heart of him sent spilling out like yolk. It’s not that he doesn’t trust Stiles with it. He does. He does trust him. It’s just that feeling of being  _exposed._  Apparently it doesn’t matter who’s looking.

But despite what Derek’s cautious habits may imply, there hasn’t been a real threat in Beacon Hills in a long time. Until there is of course. And it doesn’t really matter what the threat is. What matters is that Stiles does the most incredibly stupid thing he could possibly do and  _takes a fucking arrow for Derek_. Which — Derek will admit, it was laced with wolfsbane so maybe it would have ended badly whether the aim had found it’s home or not. But Stiles is —

Stiles is  _human._  He’s breakable. His entire body could turn on him in a snap.

Derek  _loves_  Stiles.

And when Stiles wakes up in the hospital, Derek gives him an earful. Full of guilty fire and worried bite. A little frantic around the edges. If it had been years back, when Stiles knew Derek just a little bit less, maybe he’d have been angry right back. Maybe he’d have spat out a scathing remark or asked why Derek cared at all. But he does know Derek now. Maybe better than he’s known anyone in his entire life. So instead he says:

"Dude. I’m not the only one who needs protecting you know?"

And Derek thinks…maybe he’s right.

Because when they’d moved into their new house to find a brand new gas stove hooked up to the wall, Stiles is the one that argued vehemently for it to be traded in for an electric. And even though Derek knows it was because the younger man had noticed him volleying for oven cooked meals and microwave trays and take out for dinner, Stiles didn’t hesitate to draw up a full list of reasons why he was personally against the thing so Derek would feel like it was a joint decision.

Stiles is the one who threw out Mrs. Simmons “Welcome to the Neighborhood” cookies, as the old woman looked on with unrestricted horror, because she’d told him he could do much better than suspected murderer  _Derek Hale_.

Stiles is the one that punched Deputy Lahiri in the mouth at the Christmas party for saying, “Well I hope he’s good in bed. He doesn’t exactly have much of a personality to go with that face does he?” Stiles spent the remainder of the evening handcuffed to the bench outside of the Sheriff’s office, looking not at all repentant.

(“He deserved it. You’re so much more than a pretty face Derek, and anyone who says otherwise can suck my dick. Just…not literally, because that’s your job.”

“You’re lucky I love you.”

"I am. I am lucky you love me.")

And in December, when Derek worked that case involving a young, attractive female teacher having sex with her fifteen year old student, Stiles is the one who cut whole articles out of the newspaper so Derek didn’t have to see debates over “who the real victim was”. Stiles is the one that made scathing responses to ignorant YouTube commenters. Stiles is the one who left “I love you’s” written in the fog of the bathroom mirror so they’d be there for Derek in the morning and made Derek’s favorite coconut cookies for his lunch even though that meant the Sheriff getting his hands on them and didn’t ask if Derek wanted to talk about it or if he was okay because he knew the answer to both was no. 

Stiles is the one that kisses him awake and makes Talia’s tomato florentine soup on rainy evenings and rubs Derek’s back after hard days and loves him just when he needs it which is  _always_.  

Yeah, Derek thinks. He doesn’t just protect Stiles. They protect each other. 

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr](http://theartfuljackdawkins.tumblr.com)


End file.
